1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotary-type wafer drying apparatus incorporated in semiconductor manufacturing process to prevent the contamination of a wafer, and more particularly to a wafer drying apparatus with an anti-deflection cover for protecting the rebounding of deionized water to the wafer being dried in the drying apparatus, said protecting plate mounted to a cradle containing the wafer to be dried. As is well known, cleaning of a wafer is typically carried out by spraying deionized water on the wafer. The deionized water present on the wafer is then remowed by applying rotational force to the wafer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The wafer drying apparatus of the prior art, as illustrated in FIG. 1, is comprised of a rotor 4 rotating around shaft 5, and a plurality of cradles 2 mounted to the inside of the rotor for carrying the wafer 1 being processed. The deionized water which is on the wafer is removed by centrifugal force applied by rotor 4, and thus drying of wafer is carried out.
However, in the apparatus of prior art, if the rotor is at a high speed deionized water coming off the wafer collides with the cylinder wall 3 of the drying apparatus and rebounds against the wafer, thereby re-contaminating the wafer.
To cope with this, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the cylindrical wall 3 is equipped with a rugged surface so as to lessen the reflection phenomenon that water buried in wafer is rebounded from the wall. Nonetheless, the rugged-shaping of the equipment cannot completely overcome the reflection of removed water since the rebound phenomenon still recurs. Furthermore, in case of incorporating such rugged-shaping and others into the cylinder wall 3 of the drying apparatus, set-up expenses are very high and it is very difficult to operate the apparatus.